Artists Talk with LVA: January 8, 2026

This week, Luanne Smith & Bob Lockhart will discuss her new exhibit, Biophilia, now at Pyro Gallery. Tune in to WXOX 97.1 FM / Artxfm.com each Thursday at 10 am to hear Artists Talk with LVA.

For Luanne Smith, painting is both a return and a renewal.  After raising her family, she rediscovered her lifelong passion for art through watercolor.  Her realistic depictions of wildlife, botanicals, and landscapes offer a close look at nature with attention to light and detail.

Primarily self-taught, Luanne continues to develop her skills through workshops and ongoing study with noted watercolor artist Cathy Hillegas.  She has exhibited in numerous community shows and is also a juried member of the Louisville Artisans Guild.  She is a member of Pyro Gallery, where she has just opened an exhibit of new watercolors called Biophilia, which runs through January 25, 2026

Luann Smith will be giving a Gallery Talk at Pyro on January 10 at 1 pm.

Bob Lockhart is an award-winning sculptor whose work is in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum of Art in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Speed Art Museum in Louisville, the Indianapolis Art Museum, and many others. In addition, Lockhart's pieces have been commissioned by the Louisville Zoo, by numerous churches and schools, and by private collectors.

Artists Talk with LVA: August 21, 2025

Indiana muralist Carrie Johns has been super busy, but found the time to join us this week in the studio. Tune in to WXOX 97.1 FM / Artxfm.com each Thursday at 10 am to hear Artists Talk with LVA.

Carrie Johns has completed over a dozen murals in Southern Indiana, as well as several others in Louisville. All of them are designed for a specific location and purpose. Her largest mural, covering 3,700 square feet, is located on the Elsby East building just outside of her studio.  She has an Art History degree from the University of Louisville and has worked for the Weber Group before becoming a full-time mural artist.

Immediately after this interview, Carrie was off to Corydon, Indiana to put the finishing touches on her latest project for the Harrison County Public Library.

Artists Talk with LVA: April 3, 2025

Sara Olshansky is the recipient of the 2024 Bill Fischer Award and will open a solo exhibit at The Quonset Hut on April 5. She discussed all of this in the studio this week. Tune in to WXOX 97.1 FM/Artxfm.com each Thursday at 10 am to hear Artists Talk with LVA.

Sara Olshansky is a Louisville-based artist interested in exploring addition and erasure of imagery on a single picture plane to demonstrate alternatives to linear Time, primarily through landscape painting. She also freelances as a writer for regional publications and has curated exhibitions locally. She is the recipient of the 2024 Bill Fischer Award for Visual Art There will be an opening reception Saturday, April 5, from 5 - 8 pm at The Quonset Hut for From Beneath and Far Below New Paintings by Sara Olshansky.

In 2017, she attended Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona where she participated in contemporary, Spanish fine art practices and engaged with international art institutions across Europe. Olshansky is represented in several public and private collections across the United States and has exhibited regionally.

Artists Talk with LVA: December 26, 2024

"New Beginnings" opens at Pyro Gallery on January 3 and will feature work by Janet Dake and Erica Chinise Wilcox, Janet joins us in the studio this week to talk about it. Tune in to WXOX 97.1 FM/Artxfm.com each Thursday at 10 am to hear Artists Talk with LVA.

Janet Dake is a figurative painter from Versailles, Kentucky, now based in Louisville. Her work is about people, both real and imagined. Dake’s paintings tell stories. Through intricate (and often made-up) backgrounds, Dake creates narratives that reflect contemporary social issues and cultural phenomena. In 2021 she completed an Artist Residency in Toronto, Canada, where she had her first solo show entitled Human Nature. In 2022, her work was selected for the Ferrara Showman Gallery for their annual No Dead Artists group show and the Post Roe Louisiana show at the Carrollton Gallery at Tulane University. Her work was recently displayed at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art for the annual Louisiana Contemporary showcase. Dake is currently a member of Pyro Gallery in Louisville, KY. 

“New Beginnings”, in which Janet will be exhibiting with Erica Chinise Wilcox, opens at Pyro Gallery on January 3, with a reception from 5:30-8:30 pm

Artists Talk with LVA: April 27, 2023

Luminous: New Work From the Studio of Liz Price opens April 28 at Wheelhouse Art and Liz will be in the WXOX studios to discuss her work and family legacy. Tune in to WXOX 97.1 FM/Artxfm.com each Thursday at 10 am to hear Artists Talk with LVA.

Luminous: New Work by Liz Price

Opening reception: Friday, April 28th, 6:00 - 8:00 . The exhibition will be up until June 10th.

Liz Price was born in Louisville, Kentucky, and graduated from the University of Louisville in 1981 with an undergraduate degree in sculpture. She lived and worked in New York City for several years before moving to Philadelphia to attend the University of Pennsylvania. There she received a Master of Fine Arts degree in painting in 1988.

Neil Welliver was chairman of the program then, while other critics and visiting artists included Rafael Ferrer, William Bailey, Altoon Sultan, and Alex Katz. Price paints in a painterly realist tradition, citing influences ranging from Cezanne, Matisse and Vuillard to Richard Diebenkorn, Fairfield Porter, Janet Fish, and Lois Dodd.